The first bunch of punk albums to come out of the UK just sounded so fresh compared to what we had been listening to before. It really did feel like year zero. The first I heard of The Stranglers was a very short snippet of the clip for Grip that they showed on the music news section of Countdown. It sounded great. It looked great and a few days later it was in the shops.Tons of classics on this album. Peaches, Hanging Around, Grip, London Lady...it just sounded fantastic. A bit more retro than the other bands. well apart from The Jam. Big Doors influence. The lyrics of course were very sexist. But so was Under My Thumb 10 years earlier.
Six months later they came out with a second album. My sister sent it to me for my 21st birthday. She and my Mum were living in England. She wrote birthday greetings on the back though that kind of wrecked my punk credentials a touch.
Then the band came to Australia. I went to see them at Latrobe Uni. Supported by the Models. The Stranglers seemed a little pissed off. Then they got really pissed of and suddenly there were cans of beer flying all over the place. I was up the front dodging cans. Amazing stuff. They only played for 40 minutes. Maybe even shorter. But it was totally action-packed.
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